A Cold Night
by Steel Komodo
Summary: It's not easy getting to sleep on a cold night, especially when you're sharing a room with the captain. Post WW, Slight OOC, rated T for mild swearing.


**Since I'm feeling in a festive mood, I've decided to write another Zelda romance fic to warm the cockles of your hearts****, as an early Christmas present. So here we go.**

**Rated T for a reason, and I don't own Zelda, alright?**

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It was one of the coldest winter nights Windfall Island had ever lived through. This should be no surprise to anyone, considering that it was in the middle of a sea influenced by the wind, but it seemed as through the weather had decided to throw a tantrum, because the usually chilly night was colder still, with a steady gale from the north that was chilling the entire population with it's freezing bite. It was already causing almost everyone to shut their doors and windows and sit down comfortably in front of their fires with a blanket over their bodies and a warm drink – only the strong-bodied and strong-willed dared to go out for whatever reason, and it was in the knowledge that they would be back home in the warm anyway.

Sadly Tetra, Link and the pirates had no access to this luxury. After fending off another attack from some of Ganon's remaining sea forces, the group were tired out of their minds – Nudge had fallen asleep in the crow's nest several times, and twice Gonzo would have gone overboard, if not for the timely intervention of the green-clad boy hero. It was then decided that they should all head to land and get some rest for their next trip to Ice Island to pick up some loot an old pirate had left behind before he died. Sadly, it was dark when they got to Windfall Island, even with Link's magic baton to speed things up, and the cold didn't help one bit, either. Wrapped up in her blanket and yelling through chattering teeth, Tetra had announced that the best thing to do would be to book in some rooms at the inn, the pirate's favourite when it came to rum.

This was rapidly proving to be a bad idea.

"Rooms for-" Link had begun to say as he opened the door, and then the rest of his sentence was lost to being trampled by six half-mad, shivering pirates, all yelling at once as they rushed to get out of the cold. By the time the boy hero had picked himself up, Niko, Nudge, Gonzo, Mako, Zuko and Senza were swamping the reception desk and hollering out their demands for rooms and rum – the latter being their main priority at this moment, as no true pirate goes without rum.

Tetra joined him with watching the frenzied activity, and shook her head at the receptionist's flustered expression. "You'd think she'd learn to cope with those idiots by now," she remarked. "They always act like this whenever they come here."

"It's their favourite place," Link reminded her as he felt his arms for bruises and checked the bag of necessities was still in place over one shoulder. "You know they'll do this every time. Besides, all they want is to get out of the cold."

A sly grin came over Tetra's face. "Don't you mean the rum?" she quizzed, knowing full well how every pirate's mind operated on her ship, and not letting on that she had a bottle of the stuff in her own bag.

Link laughed at this. "Yes, of course, the rum as well," he added, and Tetra giggled in response. Link always seemed to enjoy these sorts of short, random conversations with his captain, although he didn't actually know why – they never really had much to talk about nowadays, not since the defeat of the evil sorcerer Ganon and the final submerging of Old Hyrule beneath the waves. Although he had done most of the heroic work himself, Tetra had also played an important part due to her true identity as the princess Zelda, though if you called her that now you got kicked in the shins and told to get back to work. Maybe it was because of this co-operation that they had become such great friends – they'd almost always help each other out with any job that needed doing, out of a strange sense of friendship, wherever it was hoisting the sails or rescuing Gonzo from sharks (again).

But it seemed as if there was something more, to Link… He didn't know why, but it was more than just helping each other out, rescuing her from giant birds and monsters and saving the world that made him stick by Tetra. He just liked being around her, he had reasoned to himself one night, and what reason was there for him _not _to? She was a really nice person to be around - smart, funny as anything and had a wit sharp enough to cut through three layers iron. The latter he could easily testify to, as he'd had to suffer her harsh comments on more than one occasion. Mind you, so all the other crew members whenever they messed up on anything, and she wasn't afraid to speak her mind to a complete stranger, including the one sailor who nearly ran them aground on Dragon Roost Island. He was about three feet taller than her, with a horrible ragged scar on his cheek and arms like steel bars that could have snapped the tiny, bookish Mako in two, and he'd simply shuffled his feet and stared at the floor while Tetra yelled and swore at him in a complete rage for five minutes straight, the rest of the crew watching in fascinated silence. And he really couldn't stop himself from thinking this, but even when she was angry, she was really-

He snapped out of his train of though just in time to see the pirates disengage from the counter and head straight for the bar. The barkeep's expression as he looked up from cleaning a glass to recognise the motley crew read something along the lines of "Oh, no, not _them_ again," but before the boy hero had time to watch this new development, he felt Tetra's firm hand clutching onto his wrist, and he yelped in shock.

"Come _on_, you," his captain playfully scolded, and she half-led, half-dragged him over to the desk, as eager to get out of the cold as soon as possible. They reached the receptionist just as she was mopping the perspiration from her brow with a handkerchief, still nervous of the pirates who were now squabbling over who got to pay for the rum this time.

"I take it you're with that lot over there," she grumbled, jabbing her finger in the direction of the mob.

"Yep," said Tetra, chirpily.

"Odd, for you lot to be out so late on so cold a night," the girl mused, in as interested a voice as she could muster – her heavy eyes betrayed her exasperation and tiredness at the late hour.

Link merely shrugged. "Could you book us rooms too, please?" he enquired. The receptionist made a great, somewhat sarcastic show of sorting through the numerous papers on her desk and flicking through the tattered pages of her check-in book, and then turned a tired, irritated eye on the two.

"Guess what?" she sighed.

"What?" both chorused, and then stared at each other in surprise.

"You'll have to share," grumbled the receptionist. "That lot took six of the last seven rooms, and we haven't got any guest rooms going spare. Sorry and all that."

There was an awkward silence, in which the pirates got their rum, half an inch of sand was eroded from a faraway island and the dinosaurs became extinct. Link felt as though the bottom of his stomach had dropped out in sheer shock and terror. _Share_ a room with his _captain?!_ On the pirate ship he had to share a bunk with the others, and only Tetra had a room to herself, leading to the rest of the crew making up wild, unfounded rumours of what might lie within, none of which the boy hero had believed. Naturally, not knowing much about pirate etiquette, Link had simply accepted that this was the norm for all pirate ships, and that there was some unspoken, horrible punishment for trying to use the captain's quarters for whatever reason. But here, he was being _forced_ to share a bed with Tetra, and this would only make the next day's consequences more horrifying.

As an expression of horror crawled across the boy's features, he turned to look at Tetra, seeing that her face was a portrait of shock and outrage, with red-flushed cheeks, bulging eyes and clenched teeth. Judging from her rapid breathing, she was about to explode any second-

"_**WHAT?!**_" she shrieked, her voice slicing through the freezing air like a knife through half-melted butter and causing him to jump about half a foot in the air. The receptionist backed away in fear, raising her hands protectively as if expecting the young girl in front of her to pounce on her and claw her eyes out.

"I said I was sorry!" she hollered. "Jeez."

Tetra whipped round to face the crew, who were now watching the scene with amusement on their faces as they sat at tables. "How could you idiots _do_ this to us?!" she wailed, clearly upset at the idea of sharing a bed with her whipping-boy and (although she'd never admit it) best friend.

"Not our fault, ma'am" countered Senza, every bit of his voice lacking anything actually apologetic. "You never said you wanted your own room."

"Besides," added Mako as he swirled his rum in a business-like manner, "we can't change the bookings now that they're fixed. We get our own rooms, you'll have to share." The tiniest hint of a smirk crossed his face at his own cleverness, while the other pirates snickered with laughter at their captain's expression.

"Why don't two of you share a room at once?" Tetra demanded, in the hopes of restoring order. But the pirates merely shook their heads and shrugged.

"You heard Mako, ma'am," said Zuko, softly. "Room's can't be changed once we got 'em."

"But couldn't I share a room with you guys?" Link asked, trying desperately to worm his way out of the awkward situations he could already imagine. The response from the pirates was mixed, polite in the case of Mako and vulgar in the case of some of the others, but it all constituted to the same solid, decided negative.

But Gonzo was far more vocal. "Back off, shrimp," he growled, setting down his glass from a particularly long swig. "Kids like you 'aint got no business bunking with us lot." The other pirates instantly realised what he'd just said, and snapped round to look at him, various expressions of shock, incredulity and "you idiot" on their faces. They all knew of the bigger man's heated rivalry with Link, mostly because he (wrongly) perceived the boy and his job of rescuing Tetra from any sort of hostage situation as an attempt to muscle in on his job of right hand man and bodyguard. With the boy now promoted to a sort of "co-captain", Gonzo had preferred to keep his mouth shut for fear of walking the plank. But never before had they heard him vocalise his disapproval of the hero so readily before, bolstered by tiredness, rum and annoyance with the cold weather outside.

That did it. Link leapt at Gonzo with every intention of pummelling him, but the quick-thinking Tetra grabbed him by the back of the collar and dragged him, thrashing and screaming half-formed threats and curses towards the door that led to the rooms. As she went, the receptionist slipped a key into the pirate girl's palm, and whispered to avoid attracting the attention of the others.

"Third door on the right, corridor 6," she whispered.

"Thanks," Tetra hissed over her friend's shouting.

"BLOODY PIRATES!" Link screamed as his captain dragged him away.

* * *

Once Link and Tetra had gone, Senza turned and slapped Gonzo upon the back of the head, causing the other pirate to spill his rum and curse.

"You _idiot_," he snapped, annoyed with his shipmate's rebellious behaviour earlier. "There was _no_ need to get Link angry at all."

"So what if I don't like the kid?" Gonzo retorted, rubbing the back of his head. "That's none of your business, mate. He's more of a teeny shrimp than Niko, even." The smaller pirate flipped a rude gesture in his direction at this, his expression of annoyance clear to all.

"He's twice the man you'll be, Gonzo, and no mistake," Nudge countered, hotly – the somewhat younger crew member, like the others, held a sort of deep-founded respect for the boy hero, mostly out of saving their captain from Ganon and all the other feats he'd performed.

Gonzo, seeing that he was now quite clearly outnumbered, grumbled some vague threat and retreated back to his rum glass, which was now much emptier than when it had started. Scanning the crowd about him for anyone else who wanted to argue, he found that Mako wasn't drinking his rum any more. Rather, the intellectual was staring idly out of the nearby window, a vacant expression on his face. But the older pirate easily recognised the twinkle in the dark eyes – the classic Mako look that said he knew more about something than he was saying, and wasn't going to let on at all, not even for a hundred rupees. It bothered Gonzo that his shipmate would suddenly adopt this look, and so he leant over and curiously nudged Mako in the shoulder.

"What're you thinking about, eh?" he quizzed.

The younger pirate shrugged. "Just tryin' to work out how Link and Miss Tetra are going to get on, that's all."

"Well, that's obvious, isn't it?" Zuko, who hadn't participated in the conversation for a while, straightened up and made random gestures with his hands, as if to emphasise the horror in his next statement. "She's going to chop him to ribbons, first time he slips up."

"Really?" Mako shifted his focus to Gonzo, moving away from the window. "Is that what you think?"

"Of course!" Gonzo was getting slightly annoyed now. "Why do you ask?"

Mako was smirking as he shifted round in his seat, set his glass down and leant forward, clasping his hands together. He was about to play his trump card, delivering the very saying which would cause the others to hang on his every word like puppies after a biscuit. His plan hinged on the simple fact that all pirates loved money, and he wasn't about to let the opportunity to make Gonzo look like a fool and get more cash slip through his fingers.

"I'd like to make a bet with you," he said, calmly.

* * *

"You really shouldn't listen to him, you know," Tetra grumbled as she dragged the very much calmer Link into their allocated room and released him from her grip. "Gonzo never really means anything he says – just a big, bungling idiot, like the others are sometimes." She swung her bag onto the bed and began to unpack the various necessities from it: pyjamas, hair brush, soap, rum and whatever else she kept in there.

Link simply sat on the bed and said nothing, apart from twiddling his thumbs and wearing an apologetic look on his face. Now that he'd thought things over, he really felt sorry about acting so childish and immature in front of Tetra, flying off the handle at Gonzo when there was really no need. He briefly wondered what everyone else at the bar was thinking upon seeing him in that mad fury – probably wondering who this nutcase was. And now he'd nothing to say, especially not to Tetra, who though he was an idiot now and wouldn't speak to him for days, either…

He suddenly felt an arm patting his shoulder, and looked up to see Tetra's smiling face.

"Hey, c'mon," she said, warmly. "Cheer up. I'm not mad."

Link brightened up a little. "Really?"

"Sure, came the reply, and Tetra picked up her pyjamas from the bed. "Now, are we getting to bed, or what?"

Link obligingly emptied his bag and sorted the things, and Tetra wandered off into the bathroom to ensure both had some privacy. The event of getting changed passed without anything in the way of event, as there usually is no real majesty or grandness to the affair, and Link was just slipping his sleeping shirt on when the blond-haired girl walked in, dressed in a light gown and yawing hugely. Without a word, she flung back the quilt and, accompanied by the classic saying of "Alley-Oop," jumped in between the sheets and snuggled down. Link slipped in slower and more calmly, although doing his best to keep away in order to prevent any misunderstandings from the other pirates in the morning.

"G'night, Link," murmured Tetra from where she lay, wrapped in the quilt.

"Goodnight, Tetra," came the reply. And with that, Link blew the candle out and settled down to sleep.

* * *

Much later, somewhere in the middle of the night, Link woke up and cursed under his breath.

The cold was much worse than he'd initially thought. The blankets that the inn supplied were relatively cheap, old-fashioned affairs that were designed more for actually covering a person's body than for keeping them warm, which, Link reasoned, was surely the point of blankets in the first place. As a result, they were rather thin and light – fine for summer, when temperatures where much higher and people wanted to keep cool, but in the biting winter night, they did very little to block out the cold that seeped into the room through the window, and the boy hero shivered slightly as the icy air danced across his skin. Granted, he was somewhat warmer than he was a few moments ago, as he stood in his pyjamas and climbed into bed, but it still wasn't a factor in what he termed a comfortable night's sleep. Now, as he lay in bed, wide awake at an indeterminable time of night, he found himself thinking that he should have brought a hot water bottle.

Just then, he felt someone moving next to him, repeatedly shifting about between the covers. Turning over, he almost jumped as he saw Tetra, tossing about and very much awake. The girl was much closer than before, probably due to her restlessness in the night, and he could feel the warmth from her body seeping through the covers towards him.

Nervously, he gently prodded her in the shoulder. "Tetra?" he whispered.

The young girl rolled over to find him, and he almost flinched at her tired eyes. "Oh, hi," she mumbled. "Can't sleep either?"

Link nodded his head. "I just woke up," he responded, truthfully. He reckoned he was almost as tired as his captain was, if not more so – a body woken in the middle of the night tends to suffer in the alertness department. He heard Tetra mumble something in response, but paid little heed and rolled over onto his back, placing his hands behind his head and closing his eyes as he tried to think of a solution to their annoying problem.

He had just decided to go down and fetch some more blankets when he felt an arm slide slowly over his body. He spontaneously tensed – his natural reaction whenever he spotted a monster of Ganon – and glanced over, and his eyes widened in shock when he saw how very close Tetra was suddenly now. And she was still sliding closer to him, gazing fixedly as tried to wrap the arm around his waist.

"Mmm… come over here," she whispered.

Link flinched, surprised by this sudden gesture. "Wh-?"

"Pleeeaaase," the girl whined, trying to pull him closer. "You're _warm_."

Link briefly considered his options. One the one hand, he really didn't understand why his friend and captain was doing this to him, and he was frankly rather… _unnerved_ by her sudden, impulsive need to be so close to him. This wasn't the way she normally acted at all! Snapping, teasing, maybe a sharp kick in the shins if he messed things up, he could take all of that from her– but _this?!_ It was all too sudden and too strange for him.

On the other hand, if it helped them to get to sleep…

"Aw, what the hell," he muttered at last. "Come here, you." And he rolled onto his side, reached over with both hands and wrapped his arms about the girl's back, pulling her closer to him as she wound her arms around his shoulders. He found himself fighting back a reflexive blush as they snuggled up next to each other, but already their shared body heat was doing it's job – trapped between the couple and the thin layer provided by the sheets, it was slowly warming them both, fighting back the cold in the same deliberate, unstoppable manner that river water oozes over a dusty, parched wasteland and gives life to the dormant seeds under the ground.

Within seconds, the pair was much warmer and a lot more comfortable. Being so close together wasn't as awkward as Link had imagined, and he relaxed in Tetra's arms as the girl ran her fingers through his soft, messy blond hair, drawing a sigh of contentment from him. Outside, the icy wind howled and rattled the window in outraged fury at its failure to affect the young adventurers within the room any further, and the two paid no more mind to it.

"Thanks," Tetra whispered to her co-captain, as the hand that had been in his hair slipped down to his shoulder.

"No problem," Link whispered back, as his eyes slid closed. Finally warm and comfortable, he could easily see a more restful night's sleep for the both of them, and an easy morning for tomorrow's journey. Already he could feel himself dozing off-

His mind suddenly jolted with a thousand chaotic alarm bells as he felt something warm and soft on his cheek, and then his eyes shot open in surprise as Tetra withdrew from him. Even as his head span in little circles, something like a spark of hope, strange and new to him, flickered and danced within his heart among the conflicting messages, and he looked up at the smiling face of the young pirate, the kiss still tingling on his skin.

"T-T-Tetra," he stammered, "W-What was-?"

"Sshhh…" the girl whispered softly, bringing up one hand to cup the boy hero's chin and forcing his eyes to lock with hers. At the sight of the blue, half-lidded irises gazing back at him, the spark flickered again, and Link became aware of an actual blush forming on his face now, as he waited, breath held, to see what would happen next.

What he did not expect was for Tetra to lean in, pressing her lips to his.

Oddly enough, the motion didn't catch him off guard as much as expected. Indeed, while his mind froze in the traditional disbelief and surprise, the spark in his heart burst into a passionate flame, and he simply melted into the kiss, slowly shifting closer to her as his eyes slid shut again in bliss. As the girl's arms wound themselves about his shoulders again, his own hands glided down to her waist, pulling her closer and sighing at the feel of her body against his. His senses were flooded by the scent of her perfume (he never knew she even wore the stuff), the sound of her moans into his mouth and the feel of her lips moving against his own – and it all felt so _good_…

After a few moments, they parted, breathing heavily and far warmer than before. For a few moments more that seemed like hours to them, they simply stared into each other's eyes, not noticing red-flushed faces, slightly open mouths or the rattling of the window. It was the silent, frozen moment of two young people in love trying to work out something to say to each other, perhaps a confession or explanation for why they'd suddenly done this thing.

But there was no need. The kiss had already said it all.

Then, as tiredness finally caught up with them, the pair rested their heads down and, holding each other close, slept peacefully.

* * *

That next morning, as the pirates packed their things, they noticed Link and Tetra were later than usual in getting up. As they ate breakfast, they saw them sharing a table and having similar meals, chatting and laughing. And as they left the inn, they saw the two walking together, hand in hand, not saying anything. This was highly unusual behavior for the both of them, and the crew began to get suspicious about what had happened last night.

But the real kicker came when, just as they were boarding the ship for the journey to Ice Island, both hero and captain turned, kissed quickly and briefly, and then strolled down to the cabin together.

Gonzo's face was a picture of shock and horror, the older pirate looking absolutely devastated, while the others laughed at his expression, now understanding clearly the change in relationship between boy hero and girl captain. Only Mako remained calm, a smirk of triumph on his face and a gleeful twinkle in his eye that said he had foreseen this all the time.

"You owe me twenty rupees, Gonzo," he said, shortly.

* * *

**How was that? I had a lot of trouble writing the romantic parts, as you can probably tell, but I think I managed to pull them off as I had wanted. Oh, and did you spot the Pirates of the Caribbean reference?**

**Reviews appreciated, but Constructive Criticism is best, so I can improve.  
**


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